Bulger's Beat: Salon gossip inspires stylist's new book

Hair stylists often get the latest gossip, secrets and juicy details when working with clippers, and those conversations have inspired a new book by a local who knows them well.

Judy De Luca has been cutting and coloring hair for more than 30 years and now works at J Bangs Salon in Green Hills. While the styles have changed through the years, what hasn't are the personal life details she hears from her clients.

De Luca said she knows what is coming once a client climbs into her chair. Fun family updates are first, then they move onto what else is new.

Look around the room on a typical day and there are lips in motion in every chair, dishing and spilling and sharing the latest news. It's a common salon scene, from hair to eternity.

"It's in every country all across the world. You get so emotionally attached to people the come in with sad stories and happy stories," De Luca said. "We're not trained as psychiatrists. We're not trained in that department, yet we do it day in and day out."

All that dish has been the creative spark for De Luca's book, Towel Dry and a Good Cry, a fictional account in a setting called Salon Scuttlebutt.

And if the daily salon stories make you wonder about our world, De Luca has a sort-of blow dryer barometer on life in 2012.

Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne, of Finland, stops a shot against the St. Louis Blues in the first period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

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An Antioch man was arrested and charged by federal agents for making false statements in an attempt to purchase a firearm after he was flagged by two local police for erratic behavior and interest in ISIS and mass shootings.

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This Sept. 24, 2017, photo provided by Michael Kass shows Yann Arnaud during a Cirque du Soleil performance in Toronto. Arnaud died early Sunday, March 18, 2018, after falling while performing during a show on Saturday in Tampa, Fla. (Michael Kass via AP)

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